the staff meeting today

The doctors and therapists who work with Andie had their staff meeting this morning and had all agreeed that Andie was not using her right side much and that they needed to determine why.
By the time the case manager and I got together the whole thing was out the window.

Andie's attention span was better today, her movement on the right is now more than just reflexive - keep in mind they're not huge strides but for where she was this stuff IS huge: she moved her ankle slightly, caught a beach ball also using the right side and walked slowly using parallel bars at first just a few steps... then ... I could see... frustration?... sadness?... as they let her sit on the closely -following wheelchair and then exhaustion and more sadness.

They tell me she's aware of where she is and what's happening - or not happening as far as her abilities, I think she realizes it and breaks down at times. But still she's moving the right side you can praise her all over the place and she's still gonna get to the lounge on her floor and make us stop and insist she wants to go home. Insist she wants to get in the bed when she's back in her room but tough love keeps her in the wheel chair since if she is in bed too long there's a greater risk of pneumonia and she needs to build up endurance by just sitting for now.

I asked just this afternoon if she would like to have friends come in to visit and though sometimes she's iffy with responses - this one was clear - no! Her hair isn't done up and every time there's a chance in front of a mirror the first thing she does is goof around with her 'do. In a way I wish we could have a way to visually update everyone but once she found out about it -OH! - she would be sooo unhappy to know that she was seen like this.

Each day is looking better - hopefully this improvement keeps up.